missing hype |
With Donegal fielding weakened teams, Leitrim unable to field one at all, and a lack of any sort of hype, meet the unwanted child of GAA family
Believe me, there is hardly a league in the world that has such jeopardy and excitement on the final day. Christ, if Sky had this, they would be milking it all week.
Or how about a bit of flexibility? We could have had RTÉ showing the Division 1 and 2 games yesterday and TG4 continuing today with Divisions 3 and 4. OK, there is the smaller matter of hurling, but it is more likely they are thinking of covering the URC. It is another missed opportunity.
Sadly, in the world of the GAA, we don’t do hype or publicity. We were not shouting from the rooftops about the excitement of the final round of the National Football League.
No siree. The second biggest competition on the inter-county calendar is like the unwanted child of the family and, sadly, it is all too often ignored.
Publicity surrounding the competition, the matches and the star players is sparse. In many instances, it is non-existent.
Allianz have been the title sponsors of the leagues for many years. I often have the feeling they have been sold a pup and are most definitely not getting bang for their buck.
But maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. The various sponsors of the hurling and football championships have been short-changed as well, where the split season sees loads of games shoe-horned into an almost impossibly tight schedule.
There is an element of box ticking, of getting the games and competitions out of the way as quickly as possible, with no opportunity for a build-up of publicity for the big matches.
Yet again, a missed opportunity by the GAA to drum up some invaluable publicity.
But of course, it’s not just the sponsors who are being short-changed; the supporters are being taken for a ride as well.
Bad enough, as I pointed out several weeks ago in this newspaper, that the match-day experience at National League games hasn’t changed one iota in the last 30-40 years.
And last week we had the farcical situation where the joint table-toppers in Division 1, Donegal, decided that their place in the top flight was safe and their priority would be the championship game against Derry a week after the league final.
To put it bluntly, they are not interested in getting to a league final or winning a title. And that’s why they made 11 changes from their winning team against Derry and fielded an understrength side against Tyrone. And guess what. They lost.
Now Jim McGuinness is entitled as a manager to pick whatever team he wants and to prioritise whatever competition he chooses. And if Donegal win the All-Ireland this year, this move will be considered a genius one.
Sorry, but I don’t buy into this for many reasons. Entering a sports competition should mean you are trying to win it. Merely taking part should not be an option. It certainly impacts on the credibility of the competition, where it means that Donegal’s last two opponents, Tyrone last Sunday and Mayo yesterday, played against a weakened Donegal team.
That is most definitely unfair to the other counties who have had to play full-strength versions. And it is most definitely unfair to supporters who are paying a lot of money to see what they would hope to be a full-strength Donegal line-up.
Jimmy can count himself lucky that he is not a race hose trainer because he would be before the stewards for using the racecourse as a training ground and not allowing the horse to run on its merits.
And here’s what really gets me scratching my head. I could understand this move if Donegal and their players had a bucket-load of Division 1 league medals. Christ, they’ve only won one, and that was in 2007.
Surely, given the fact that no member of the panel has won a Division 1 medal, they would love to get their hands on this coveted title? Seemingly not – and that’s a pity.
Leitrim manager Steven Poacher. Photo: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
While we’re on the subject of credibility in the league, at the other end of the food chain, Leitrim’s failure to fulfil their fixture against Fermanagh also leaves a sour taste and supporters and sponsors short-changed.
Even worse, it was unfair on the opposition because scoring difference could play a role in deciding the promotion race.
I can see the arguments for and against. But I was pissed off with the glib commentary around it last weekend suggesting that surely to God Leitrim could have found a few club players to make up 15 and played the game.
That would be totally wrong and would have brought the competition into disrepute. Maybe it is because I am passionate about rural Ireland, its future and the plight of so many rural clubs, that I have the utmost sympathy for Leitrim’s predicament.
This is a county of only 23 GAA clubs, the smallest playing pool in Ireland, and most definitely the smallest inter-county playing pool in the country. Think about what these boys are being forced to do: five weeks on the trot of National League matches because of an earlier postponement, for a young squad which was been juggling Sigerson, senior county and U-20 county commitments over the last couple of months.
Not to mention work commitments, university exams and Leaving Cert mocks.
With such a small GAA population, something had to give and unfortunately it did last Sunday.
I am fed up listening to all the reports and the research and findings and presentations looking into the problems of rural Ireland. The time for action is now. The likes of Leitrim need help, not criticism.